


To Make Her Happy

by autumnsolstice9



Category: A Song of Ice and Fire - George R. R. Martin, Game of Thrones (TV)
Genre: F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-07-31
Updated: 2016-07-31
Packaged: 2018-07-28 09:49:09
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,941
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7635601
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/autumnsolstice9/pseuds/autumnsolstice9
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It has become Daenerys’s favorite pastime to learn about Arya Stark and how to make her smile.</p>
            </blockquote>





	To Make Her Happy

When Daenerys Targaryen meets Arya Stark for the first time, she dislikes her on principle.

The Northern girl had come to the Dragon Queen, offering her sword and aid. She has dead eyes and the odd way she speaks made her easily recognizable as one of the Faceless Men, but she says her name clearly and with power. “A girl is Arya Stark of Winterfell, and she wishes to pledge her sword to you.” There was authority in that voice, something iron in it that could command men and raise armies- something hopeful in it that could have men fall to her feet.

_That,_ Daenerys thinks, _is the voice of someone who could be queen. I will not lose my crown to a Stark._

She had begun to refuse Arya’s sword, but before she could speak Tyrion walked his way down to the girl. “Your sister Sansa is safe,” he stated, placing a hand on one of the girls bony shoulders. “She is in the Eyrie, with Lord Baelish. She is said to be happy.”

Daenerys expected the girl to look happy with the news, but her eyes flickered to Tyrion’s with no response in them, just an emptiness. It makes something stir in the queen- something that wants to help the girl and make her eyes come to life, but she is a ruler and cannot base judgement on moments of sympathy.

“Why should I let you stay?” she began, her violet eyes locked with gray, “It was your aunt, Lyanna, who caused a war with nothing but a broken promise. It was your father who aided the usurper. It was your brother who claimed to be a king and rode to take my throne from the Baratheon clan. Why should I let you stay?”

“You don’t have to,” Arya stated, her voice calm as the still water of the moors. “I can head North, I can get to Westeros on my own. Yet I am here, offering assistance to you. We seek many of the same things.”

Daenerys can feel her anger rise- as if this girl had anything in common with her. As if this girl, whose family had rid House Targaryen from their own land, knew anything about wanting home and a family other than Viserys. “What exactly do we have in common?”

Arya’s smile was wicked and full of dark promises. “Vengeance, of course. Winter is coming, and I want to destroy my enemies in fire and blood.” There is a fire in her eyes that intrigues her- it is the same fire she sees reflected in her eyes when she looks in the mirror after dreaming of reclaiming her throne.

Queen Daenerys Targaryen has Arya Stark join her queensguard the very next day, and afterwards she brings Tyrion and the girl up to her chambers so they can discuss how to best bring those that harmed their families to the ground until the sun is rising in the sky and their minds are filled with daydreams of revenge.

“ _Valar morghulis_ ,” Arya had said at one point during the night.

Daenerys had agreed instantly agreed, sharing a look with Arya, “ _Valar morghulis_.”

Tyrion had watched the interaction and bitterly smiled into his wine cup, remembering a time when Arya Stark had run around after Jon Snow and knew nothing of the horrors in the world.

***

It has become Daenerys’s favorite pastime to learn about Arya Stark and how to make her smile. Any hostility that might have come from the girl being a Stark was washed away the day Arya became a member of the queensguard. After all, her most trusted advisor is a Lannister.

Daenerys does everything she can to get a reaction out of Arya: she mentions Ned, Sansa, Robb, Catelyn- any Stark she can think of- but it is when she speaks of Jon Snow that the facade the girl has finally begins to crumble. There is news that Lord Commander Snow has risen from the dead, and Arya’s eyes seem to come to life and her lips tilt upwards.

It is not much, but Daenerys clings to it.

She begins to ask Arya about her bastard brother, and then she asks about Winterfell. She gets little glimpses of the true Stark that lies beneath the mask, and it is enough to keep Daenerys by Arya’s side after council meetings, talking to the girl of anything and everything.

Everything changes the day Daenerys has a night terror.

It is not often that it happens, but when it does it is terrible. In her dream she is reaching towards the Iron Throne, about to finally take her place as queen, when someone drags her back. She turns to see the face of Viserys, burned and bloody, his body aflame. “You have woken the dragon!” he yells, and she screams for someone to help her, for someone to save her from the madman that her brother was, but no one answers.

Daenerys wakes with a scream in her throat and her door slamming open. Arya is there, her sword raised and eyes surveying the room before falling on the queen. Daenerys opens her mouth to say something reassuring, to let Arya know that everything is alright, but instead a sob rips through her throat.

She sees Arya’s eyes widen, but then the girl is putting her sword down and rushing across the room to soothe the queen. “You’re safe,” she whispers, her voice soothing in a way Daenerys has never known before. “I won’t let anyone harm you, you were having a nightmare.”

Daenerys can only nod her head, images of Viserys’s burnt body flashing in her mind. “I killed him,” she gasps out, “I killed my own brother. I let him burn- he hurt me, you have to understand that-” she is grasping Arya’s arms, desperation taking over her because she needs Arya to know that she is not just a kinslayer posing as a queen- “He hurt me, and he would threaten me, and I wanted it to stop. So I had him killed.”

Arya does not say anything, just rubs circles on Daenerys’s back and brushed her silver hair back. “Does this make me wicked? As mad as my father?” her voice is weak and trembles, and she hates how she, a khaleesi and queen, still has fear from her dead brother.

Moving to take hold of Daenerys’s hand, Arya looks her directly in the eye, her gray cutting into violet. “I do not think you are mad like your father. You did what you needed to survive- we have all done horrible things for the sake of survival. You are no worse than any other man; you might be better than them because you, my queen, feel guilt. It will make you a good leader.”

Daenerys nods her head and tightens her hold on Arya’s hand. They stay like that the rest of the night, calm words whispered into the darkness, and when the sun comes up and the world comes alive, Arya smiles at her queen.

From that moment on, Arya became more expressive with Daenerys, often sneaking to her room late at night so they could talk of life and the terror that they had seen.

Daenerys feels comforted every time she sees the she-wolf smile, and when they grab each others hands in the night before falling asleep, she feels as if she is riding one of her dragons out to the room with the red door that was the closest thing to home.

***

The red priestess who follows Daenerys around acts as if Arya Stark is a demon.

“Khaleesi,” she whispers into her ear, “the girl is dangerous. She will bring only suffering, R’Hllor shows it to me.”

But Daenerys refuses to listen to it. She cannot bear to get rid of the she-wolf. She watches Arya train the Unsullied her water dance, admiring the way her body moves fluidly and with grace. “If she brings me suffering, then so be it,” she murmurs to the priestess, “Perhaps she is worth it.”

The priestess begins to argue with her, begging Daenerys to reconsider, but she silences her with a withering glare. They are close to Westeros- only a week until their fleet departs- and Arya will be leading the sack on King’s Landing with Grey Worm. Missandei, Grey Worm, Tyrion, Arya, and Daenerys have been planning for months on how to best win over the city, and they finally have a plan. She will not let a priestess ruin it for her.

It does not stop the queen from worrying. If any part of the plan were to go wrong, she could lose any chance at the throne. She could lose _Arya_. The Stark girl had become dearly important to Daenerys. They would often ride together, seeing all the sights Meereen has to offer. Once, she let Arya ride Drogon with her. She can still remember the way her mousy brown hair had flown back and the spark in her eyes, the way she held onto Daenerys and laughed as the rode over the city.

Tyrion commented on it once the priestess left the room in a huff. “You seem very… fond of the girl. I have never seen you like this before.”

“No,” Daenerys had simply said, “You were not with me during the time of Khal Drogo.”

It had taken her a moment to realize she compared Arya to Drogo, but when it sunk it she did not feel any shock. It only seemed natural that she fall in love with Arya Stark, a girl who could never stay clean and had trouble shaking her habits from the House of Black and White. It made sense- they shared secrets with each other like Viserys’s abuse or the Red Wedding.

When Daenerys cried over the son she never got to have, Arya was the one who comforted her with soft words and circles rubbed into her back. More often than not, Arya found her way to Daenerys’s bed due to nightmares.

Tyrion had said nothing after her revelation, instead joining her in watching Arya train the troops.

“Tyrion,” Daenerys whispers, afraid that if she voices her concerns they will come true, “What if she dies in the siege? What if she does not want to stay with me in King’s Landing? I cannot force her to stay- I _will not_ force her to stay if she wishes to return home- but she is who I want by my side when I am queen.” 

He says nothing, opting to stare at her through his mismatched eyes, before placing his hand over hers.

It is all the confirmation Daenerys needs to know that even her trusted advisor has no answer to her dilemma, but then Arya smiles at her from across the practice yard and she thinks that maybe, just maybe, they will get a happy ending. Maybe they will live like one of the songs.

At the end of the day, sitting with Arya in her room, she says what she has been thinking for months now. “When the siege is over and Westeros is mine, I would like to make you happy. I will let you go North if it is what you wish, I will let you travel the world- I just want you to know that. There will be no more fear. I want you to live the life you want.”

Arya’s grin is lopsided and full of love when she says, “The only life I want is with you,” and presses her lips to Daenerys’s, smiling widely when the queen kisses her back.

**Author's Note:**

> I lowkey love daenerys/arya and think they would be great together.
> 
> as usual this is unbeta'd and done at like 3 in the morning oops


End file.
